Mother's Day

Absolutely...ONE.OF.THE.MOST.AMAZING.THINGS.IN.LIFE...being a mommy. I always wanted to be a mother. I dreamed of what it would be like to become a mother. I came up with names and wrote them down, dreamed of what little sweet voices would sound like calling me that beloved word...Mommy! And I have to say, it's even better than I imagined! I adore being a mother...adore it! It is definitely the most challenging and rewarding job I will ever have! I love watching my little ones love each other and depend on each other. I always try to be very deliberate with them and remember that even at the young age they are now, that I am teaching them and training them to become beautiful people! I just listened to a podcast tonight about being a mom, and heard this saying...I love it, it's going to become what I say to myself on "those" days..."when you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on!" Isn't that great!?

I LOVE these pictures of the moms in my life! My favorites are these last ones with my littles...Walker didn't get a nap yesterday, and he was just done when we were trying to take these. I think it's hilarious to see he wasn't in the picture, walked into it but wouldn't stand close to us and then just walked out. I also think it's so funny that Hudson is holding up some dead leaves? and then that he and Finley are playing with my hair?! And, my sweet Sawyer is sitting there eating his sweet hand and then smiling! I love these little ones and find it such a sweet blessing to be there Mommy!

Blessed...

I've been thinking a lot about how we use this word. "We" as in our culture, generation...me, my family. After those horrific tornadoes came through Alabama and Georgia, I started reading things people put on Facebook about how "blessed" they were that the storms didn't hit their house or their town. That made me think...so by saying this, are we thinking that those people whose houses/towns did get hit with those horrible tornadoes are not blessed, or not as blessed as we are? I said this to Tony, and he said...well, we all deserve hell, so anything above that is a blessing! So true, but also makes me think what do you say when something horrific happens to someone and you are spared? Then I started thinking of those great verses in Matthew 5...
Jesus said:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Easter

We had such a busy weekend over here! It started Friday night with a 7:15 p.m. t-ball game. Saturday morning, we got up and celebrated Easter with Tony's family at 11:00. The kids were asking from the moment they were up when we were having the egg hunt at Grandma and Grandpa's. They carry on this cool tradition Tony's Big D.O. and Mama Genie used to do where they hide eggs for each kid and they have numbers inside and then they get prizes that correspond to the numbers! So fun! I have no pictures of this, but I'm hoping Grandma does and I can get some from her! After the fun, we came home and napped and then off to the ball field again for a 4:00 t-ball game. Clay and Hope, and Aunt Bevo and Emma Julia came to this one and I was the dug-out Mom...so I spent the game in the dug-out getting the kids lined up for batting and helping them get ready to go back in the field. After the game, we played on the playground for a while and had sno-cones...that Ski Bob is a nice guy! After sno-cones there was dinner and then coloring eggs. We wanted to go to the early service at church, but we also knew that if we were going to the early service, it would mean we would need to be extra early to get everyone in, to their places and us to a seat on Easter Sunday. We woke up Sunday morning and I came down and made cinnamon rolls for breakfast, then we had the kids come down and they were so excited to see their baskets. We hadn't talked a lot about the Easter bunny...lots more about Jesus and how he died on the cross for us, so the night before when we sat out the baskets, there was not a lot of hoopla with it! After baskets and cinnamon rolls, we dressed and got in the car, later than I had wanted, but we had gotten lots ready Saturday night and we made it by 9:10 on Sunday! There were still lots of spaces in the parking lot! I told Tony we needed to high five over that...what an accomplishment! Church was great, and there were over 1000 people at the first service! What a cool thing to praise and worship our risen savior! Grandma took a few pictures of the crew on one of the sofas at church and then we rushed off to Commerce. My Daddy had left me instructions to start some things for lunch, so I immediately started those when we got there. Two minutes later, my parents got home from church. We had a nice lunch, then the kids took naps and after naps, we made rice krispie treats as well as bunny sugar cookies. We were waiting on Aunt Bevo for the egg hunt. As soon as she got there, Uncle Fred and Tony went outside to hide eggs. The kids had so much fun. (On a side note, and something that I want to remember is that my Mama had found random eggs that she had...totalling to like 11. She had them in a basket by the piano and Hudson found them, came out on the porch where we were sitting and announced to Grandmama that her eggs did not have any candy in them...he had shaken them all!...thus ensued a talk about why there was no candy...Walker suggested they might be "magic eggs" and as soon as those kids started napping, Grandmama went to work on figuring out what to fill those eggs with and decided she was not a very prepared Grandmama...we laughed and laughed about this one!)

After the egg hunt, we went to the field across the street to play some t-ball. Uncle Fred, Tony and Daddy let Walker learn to bat from the tee and Hudson got some practice in! (It paid off too...at his game Tuesday, he hit two balls down the third base line! Previously, they've all gone down the first base line or right to the pitcher!) Then, we rushed to take a bath, ate some dinner, threw everything in the car and came home, off to bed and then I had to work two more days at the beginning of this week because I switched some days around. Needless to say the Dudish house is T-I-R-E-D! But that good kinda tired where you were busy with fun stuff!

Happy Birthday to Walker

Walker Elijah Dudish was born April 4, 2007. He turned 4 years old on Monday. Time is flying by...he should be the size that Sawyer is! We celebrated his birthday with friends and family this past Saturday. He wanted a Toy Story party so I did my best to come up with some fun Toy Story party ideas! I stayed up way too late making his cake, but I am very pleased with how it turned out.

When our guests arrived, they each got a cowboy hat, a bandanna and a sheriff's badge in honor of Woody. Next we played a version of hot potato...I had the "You've got a friend in Me" song from the movie on our ipod and the kids sat in a circle and passed a Mr. Potato Head. I changed the rules a little for our game and when the music stopped and they were holding the potato head, instead of being out, they got to add one of his pieces(I had all the pieces in the middle). They built a pretty silly Mr. Potato Head with a big yellow mustache and long purple eyelashed eyes! We had lime green balloons with one toy story balloon that Tony tied to the mailbox...or at least he thought he tied it to the mailbox. Sometime during the party, the balloons set sail and ended up in a tree at the edge of our neighborhood. The kids walked over the next day and visited them! (We should've taken a picture of that!)

Next, they got to be Buzz Lightyear. Walker got this for Christmas and it worked out perfectly for our party purposes! One kid got to wear the Buzz Lightyear wings, while another got to sit in the spaceship wearing the Buzz Lightyear gloves. The one in the wings tried to shoot the balls into the spaceship, while the one with the gloves tried to block the balls (with their sweet heads down, of course)

Finally, my friend Christa had made this big Mr. Potato Head for our Christmas Show at school and I knew it would be great for the party. We played it kinda like pin the tail on the donkey. The kids were blindfolded and they got to choose a piece to try and velcro onto the potato head!

We had hotdogs for lunch and then had the birthday cake, our second birthday with real cake made with eggs and from a regular cake mix.

After most of the guests had left, Walker opened his gifts from our family members. He was so excited to play with his Toy Story things and wasn't going to share with Hudson. Of course that wore off, or Hudson wore him down and he did share the toys!

Things we love about Walker at 4:

1. He is stinkin' hilarious. He has us laughing all the time. That boy is just plain funny!

2. He just had his hair cut in the last 6 months and it fits his little spunky personality!

3. He has the cutest dimples around and is so precious when he smiles.

4. He will stop everything he's doing to come say an "I Love You!" that will melt your heart!

5. He loves Hudson and wants to keep up with him and he and Finley are becoming great buddies when Hudson is at school.

(I should've done four things we love about Walker at four, but I got carried away, so there's one to grow on!)

The night after his party, this is how he wanted to sleep! with the big Woody, Buzz Lightyear gloves and the cowboy hat...how stinkin' cute is that?

On his actual birthday, Monday, he had his birthday streamers on his door when he woke up that morning, and he got a bike from us. To surprise him, I had the bike hidden in the garage and Tony took the kids to the backyard to play hide and seek. I got the bike ready by tying on a new toy story balloon. When I went to get them, they were all standing at the top of the cross ties looking hesitantly at something. Hudson then points and screams, and I see it, a snake. Tony was kinda freaking out as he said, "Hudson ran right by it, twice!" Apparently, Hudson had run down to get a soccer ball, Tony saw the snake and said come back come back...thus, Hudson ran by it and then back by it, all the while, Tony was freaking out! I threw a few things at it and he didn't budge, so I had to get up closer to see if that thing was alive...all the while, Tony stayed at the top of the cross ties with the kids. I took a few pictures and saw that our little friend was indeed quite alive and sticking that tongue out and in, out and in! After all that excitement, we ran back up the hill and of course, Hudson noticed the bike first. Walker was super excited and wanted to get right on! He drove around for a while and then came in to have the lunch of Walker's request...sandwiches! We sang happy birthday and had the bottom of his cake with the "4" candle on top! I think it was a happy birthday for that sweet boy!

Seriously, I CANNOT believe this boy is FOUR! Time sure needs to slow down! Walker Dudish...we love you up!

Happy Birthday to Finley...

Our sweet baby girl is 2! Her birthday was Thursday, March 10, 2011. Oh how we love this sweet girl. She has been saying happy new year all day as we would say happy birthday to her...it was too cute! She loved running through her birthday streamers today and sang along as we sang happy birthday tonight with our rice krispie treats. She has started kissing and hugging us when she thinks that she's in trouble or has done something wrong...it's hard not to be charmed by her...seriously! She LOVES to give hugs and kisses and gives them out freely all day! We had her birthday party last Saturday! I love birthday parties...especially having a theme and planning fun things around that theme. I could not think of one thing for this sweet girl that would be fun for her brother's too. The only thing she's really into right now is baby dolls and I did not think a baby doll party would be fun for the brothers. I waited too late to make an invitation, so I went on to evite to send one last minute and hoping for some kind of inspiration there. I found it! There was a "card" that had paint splattered on it, so I went with that! The party was so fun! I set up different "stations" in the garage...finger paint and a big roll of craft paper, watercolor paint and paper at a table, our easel with paper attached a poster paint and a table with coloring books and crayons. I had some face paint and I painted little things on their hands. I also had an activity that the boys found in their highlights magazine and have been asking me daily when we could do it. You sort froot loops by color and then crush them, then you layer them in baby food jars...it's like sand art but with froot loops. Tony was a champ and sorted most of our off brand froot loops so that each kid already had all the colors they needed to make the rainbow. If I was doing this with just my kids, I would have had them sort the froot loops themselves! The directions said to roll the loops with a rolling pin, but when the kids started doing it, one bag was dropped and I got the idea that they could crush them with their feet, so that's what they did and it ended up being more fun than the rolling pins! Miss Finley LOVED the painting! She stayed at the easel the entire time! Before the kids came out to paint, they had to put on their "smocks" (old t-shirts that we didn't mind getting messed up). The birthday cake was my favorite. It was a rainbow inside! Super easy...two cake mixes split into thirds and then colored with each color in the rainbow! This was also the first cake we ever got to use a cake regular Duncan Hines cake mix...I just had to search for one that didn't have milk in it! We even got to have our cake made with real eggs! Needless to say, this was the most cake ever eaten at a Dudish birthday party! It was super yummy! The knife and serving piece were gifts I received from my teacher friends after she was born. The serving piece is engraved with her name and her birthdate. They are to be used at each birthday to cut her cake...then when she gets married, they are to be used at her reception to cut her wedding cake...talk about sentimental! Tony said he couldn't dare think about that! Me either! I didn't use them at her first birthday because I cupcakes! But, I want to use those each year and save a picture from each birthday in the case in which they came!

The night before the party, I decided I needed to make Finley something to wear, so I started that little pillowcase dress she wore at about 11:00 p.m. She looked way too big with her hair in pigtails and I seriously cannot believe that my baby girl is already 2! Time seriously flies...super fast!

The party was super fun and our Uncle Justin took these pictures!

Happy birthday baby girl! We love you up!

Sawyer is 2 months and a few catch up pics

Sawyer was 2 months old on January 16. So, he will soon be 3 months already! His stats at his 2 month check up...he weighs 14 lbs 13 oz and is 24 1/4 inches long. He's in the 95th percentile for both his height and weight. At 2 months, Sawyer is sleeping well. At night, we feed him sometime between 7 and 8:30 and then we just wrap him up in his swaddle blanket, give him his paci, and lay him in his Moses basket while we put the other kids down for bed. Usually when we come back, he is sound asleep. So simple. There's no rocking, bouncing, patting...he just falls asleep. It makes me a little sad, since he's my last baby that he goes to sleep on his own. But, it is so helpful that our sweet baby puts himself to sleep. He wakes up generally between 1 and 2:30 a.m. to eat, then goes right back into his Moses basket to sleep. And then wakes up around 6:30 or seven to eat again. He eats every three hours during the day and takes naps between each feeding. He is smiling at us all and cooing like crazy and we are all so in love! We especially love when he talks to us and smiles our way! He hardly cries, seems to be super easy going and has got the chubbiest sweet cheeks! I know I could just eat him up! This is the January group picture...Sawyer at 2 months.

I am going to try a monthly picture of all four...idea from my friend from college, Heather. This one is actually okay! This is the November group picture when Sawyer was just a wee one! This is the December group picture...Sawyer at 1 month.